Thanksgiving Essentials: Sweets & Drinks

Thanksgiving is around the corner, so it’s time to start planning the menu! Sure, you’ve thought about the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I wouldn’t even be surprised if you’ve got your eye on a special cranberry sauce recipe by this point. But what about the other Thanksgiving Day essentials that are less touted? Today, I’ll be skipping the obvious fundamentals and focusing on edible items you definitely don’t want to forget… sweets and drinks! I’ve teamed up with Ibotta to not only highlight some amazing ways to save on these items for the holiday, but also to give you a fun way to display them. So let’s get to it! Here’s my Thanksgiving Day Essentials Sweets & Drinks table!

On the big turkey day, countertops will be a battleground of meal prep and the dining table will be topped with a feast. Where with the drinks and desserts go? I suggest spreading out the festivities and setting up a second table for these essentials. This way you’ll have a good flow throughout the celebration, guests can serve themselves, and you’ll keep more bodies out of the kitchen (and out of your way!). This year with most of my family out-of-town, I’ll be throwing a Friendsgiving. That means my guests are not going to be as comfortable rummaging through my cupboards while I’m cooking. So it’s best to lay the essentials out for easy access. Besides turkey and the usuals, guests are going to want four other things… water, coffee, sweets, and libations! Luckily with the right planning, you can pull all of this together on a single table. Follow along with my guide below and find out how I used Ibotta to take the sting off of the Thanksgiving Day sticker price.

Non-Alcoholic Beverages:

First off, if you haven’t downloaded the Ibotta app, do it now! With tons of ways to earn cash back on everyday items from groceries to tech to online purchases, using Ibotta is just smart math. Before heading out to my local HEB market, I took out my shopping list and opened the Ibotta app on my phone. I then scanned the deals from HEB and found a cash back offer of $0.50 back on Bai Bubbles Sparkling Water Cans. I added the offer to my favorites and made sure to seek out the little cans of deliciousness on my shopping excursion. A fabulous non-alcoholic beverage to offer to guests could be checked off the essentials list!

Coffee:

Caffeine is a must on a holiday! From early morning basting to guests who have traveled long distances, you need to make sure coffee is readily accessible. For special occasions, I like to up my coffee game with high-end varieties and specialty creamer. Lucky, for me Ibotta had a fabulous $2.50 cash back offer on Illy Coffee Cans (literally the best coffee you can find in stores!) and a $1.00 cash back offer on Dunkin’ Donuts Extra Extra Coffee Creamer. Caffeine fix, handled!

Sweets:

I find preparing a full Thanksgiving meal a bit overwhelming and I cook for a living! So, I have a little sweet trick up my sleeve that I’m about to reveal… I outsource my desserts. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone, alright?! Instead of slaving away in the kitchen over cupcakes, I just use Instacart to place an order with a local bakery for a handful of scrumptious sweets. And that’s exactly what I did here. I would suggest ordering a variety of sweets and not just pies. Think bundt cakes, mini cupcakes, and caramel apples! Not long after I placed the order, the lovely people at Instacart delivered the desserts to my door. On top of all that, I used Ibotta to get 2% cash back on my whole Instacart sugar spree.

Libations:

Another thing I find quite overwhelming is standing in monstrous wine aisles and nervously picking a good bottle of vino. With literally thousands of options, I might as well close my eyes and grab randomly. So instead, I like using Wine.com to choose holiday libations. The site lets you search for wines by varietal, region, price, or even rating. Best of all, you can do all your shopping online in your PJs and if you shop with Ibotta you get 2.5% cash back on your purchase. For our Friendsgiving, I picked an array from Wine.com: Sofia Blanc de Blancs for a bit of bubbly, Beringer Bros. Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet Sauvignon for a unique red, and Dr. Hermann Riesling to pair with the sweets. These bottles were literally delivered to my door with no hassle and I got cash back in my pocket from Ibotta.

So if you take away anything from this post its use Ibotta to save on your sweet and drink essentials. At the end of the day, I got about $15 cash back from everything on this table using the Ibotta App. Not too shabby if you ask me. Isn’t cash back something you can be thankful for year round? Make sure to download the app and start earning today. Happy Thanksgiving!

Please note: All offers were valid as of publish date. Don’t forget to check your app for details as offers change frequently and may not be available in all areas.